Popular Science Monthly/Volume 29/August 1886/Literary Notices
Teacher's Hand-Book of Psychology. By James Sully, M. A. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1886. Pp. 414. Price, $1.50.
In the present work Mr. Sully has attempted to reduce and simplify the statement of scientific principles contained in his former and larger work, "The Outlines of Psychology," and to expand their practical applications to the art of education, with the view of "satisfying an increasingly felt want among teachers, viz., of an exposition of the elements of mental science in their bearing on the work of training and developing the minds of the young." Hence, in this particular volume we have a contribution rather to the science of education than to that of psychology. The larger work, though not by any means destitute of educational applications, is to be looked to primarily for the author's views upon the theoretical aspects of mental science. The aim of the newer book is practical. It is to be classed in the same category, for example, with Bain's "Education as a Science," though quite a different work from the latter in plan and execution. Mr. Sully condenses the principles of mental science, and shows what bearing those principles and the facts of which they are generalizations have upon the teacher's art. As its name imports, it is written not for the pupil chiefly, but for the instructor, or the student of educational methods.
Mr. Sully can hardly lay claim to the rank of a discoverer of new psychological truths. This, certainly, is no disadvantage to the success of a work like the "Teacher's Hand-Book." What is wanted is, the ascertained and accepted, so that the teacher may know what science, as knowledge verified, declares about the mind and its operations. This want the author has evidently understood, for he has been successful in keeping within the bounds of legitimate science. Very little exception can be taken to his statements of psychological facts and principles. He is never dogmatic at disputed points, he has no metaphysical hobby which he is bent upon riding, indulges in no polemical discussions, but proceeds in a direct, simple, and effective manner to work out what he tells us in his preface are the objects of his book. No better proof, for instance, of the good sense of the writer can be adduced than the fact that, in treating of volition, there is actually no mention made of the controversies over the "freedom of the will." That expression, indeed, does not occur, nor does "free-will" in any metaphysical sense. We are sure the hackneyed dispute will never be missed, but the self-restraint indicated by this omission is as remarkable as it is praiseworthy.
We are not always quite satisfied, how. ever, with the author's psychological enunciations. For illustration, we will mention his statements about association: he makes out plainly enough in his larger work that there are not three distinct modes of association, but that they can be reduced to one; and yet, with too much caution he sets forth in the "Hand-Book" three, contiguity, similarity, and contrast, because it is "usual" to do so. This is not a sufficient reason, especially when contrast has been clearly shown not to be an independent principle of association for as long a time as Professor Bain's "Senses and Intellect" and Herbert Spencer's "Principles of Psychology" have been published. Besides, to retain this as a mode of association is misleading. We do not associate by difference but by likenesses. Association is a process of integration. It is always and essentially what its name imports—assimilation. Representation, a differentiating power, brings up past experiences which association integrates and redintegrates with each other and with presentative experiences. The latter process is the assimilation of contiguities, a segregation and unification of similarities in experience. We think Mr. Sully might advantageously have elucidated in this manner the true nature of association and its connection with the general laws of evolution, since the notes he makes in the "Outlines of Psychology" show that he is alive to the objections that have been raised to the mode of statement he adopts. In fact, he allows their force. Why, then, retain what he does not believe in, merely because it is "usual"? We all concede that errors are common, but can not, therefore, argue that they should be persisted in.
We are inclined to charge our author also with an occasional sin of omission. We are surprised to find that he says so little about belief, for instance, since he has made the nature of that mental state or act a special study, as appears in one of his earlier works, "Sensation and Intuition," and also in the "Outlines of Psychology." In the "Hand-Book," however, there is little more than a passing allusion, in connection with the subject of doubt. The term belief is so universally employed in common and scientific use to indicate a certain mental attitude, or certain mental operations, that, in a work of the character of the one before us, we think something more should have been said to show exactly what this attitude is, and to exhibit more fully the nature of the operations of our minds in believing or disbelieving anything. We consider that here Mr. Sully has carried condensation too far.
But as the main purpose of our author's work is in its educational applications, so in these lies its chief merit. There is a great deal of interesting observation about the development of the child's mind—as regarding imagination and reasoning, for example; and there are many fruitful suggestions respecting the proper methods to be adopted in promoting the growth of the mental powers and strengthening them. The whole subject of control of the emotions and their various uses is admirably handled. The pleasures of knowledge, the development of aesthetic taste, the erection, maintenance* and following of moral standards—all receive ample illustration with many precepts of practical value. We are glad to see the uses of obedience in childhood, as a means to self-control and to a well-balanced character, so correctly stated. We are very apt to find either the contention that there should be little exercise of authority on the one hand, or on the other that authority should still be controlling as an end in itself throughout adult life. The former idea leads to anarchy, the latter to despotism. This is what Mr. Sully says: "As already pointed out, an indispensable step in the formation of a sense of duty is the assertion and exercise of authority over the child, the making him feel that there is a higher will over his which he has to obey.
"It may safely be contended that obedience in the sense already defined is in itself a moral habit—forming, indeed, one chief virtue of childhood. . . . Nevertheless, it is a common and fatal error to regard obedience to personal authority as an end in itself. The ingredient in childish obedience which constitutes it a moral exercise is the dim apprehension of the reasonableness and moral obligatoriness of what is laid down. And the ultimate end of moral discipline is to strengthen this feeling, and to transfer the sentiment of submission from a person to a law which that person represents and embodies Commands are a scaffolding which performs a necessary temporary function in the building up of a self-sufficient habit of right conduct" (pp. 393, 394). This is very sensible and wholesome doctrine.
Altogether, Mr. Sully has produced an excellent book, of unique character in psychological works. There is no doubt that it supplies a genuine, not a fanciful need, nor is there any question of the scholarship of the author, or of his fitness to point out practical methods in education. He is himself an educator, and has the experience of the teacher in addition to the accumulations in knowledge of one who has made of the subject of psychology a life-long study. He has done his work so successfully that our thanks and our praise are very cordially, and, as we believe, deservedly, bestowed.
Triumphant Democracy: or, Fifty Years' March of the Republic. By Andrew Carnegie. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1886. Pp. 509. Price, $2.50.
Mr. Carnegie has produced a very readable book, and one of which an American has reason to be proud as the tribute of one of her adopted citizens. The title suggests a panegyric, and the text does not belie it. The unparalleled material progress of the republic is recounted in the most exultant strain, and its political institutions are given unstinted praise. In comparison with those of the mother-country he finds the advantages all with us, and earnestly hopes that it will not be long before England will be remodeled upon our basis. The magic which has transformed a continent and given the world the strongest and wealthiest of nations he finds in the political equality of the citizens, and this is the thing he deems needful for England if she is to keep abreast of her young and powerful rival. He writes in no spirit of antagonism to England in recounting the triumphs of the English-speaking people upon this side of the Atlantic, but only wishes for her a future as pleasing. The relation of mother and child is the one he continuously holds up, and the drawing closer together of all English-speaking communities expresses his most ardent wish.
The volume would have unquestionably gained in value had Mr. Carnegie written in a more critical spirit, but it is perhaps just as well that we should have, once in a while, as ardent an admirer and as firm a believer in our political faith as Mr. Carnegie, to recall us to a contemplation of our virtues. Of critics there will always be enough. The following summary of the results achieved by the republic during the first century of its existence well indicates the general tone of the volume:
"1. The majority of the English-speaking race under one republican flag, at peace.
"2. The nation which is pledged by act of both parties to offer amicable arbitration for the settlement of international disputes.
"3. The nation which contains the smallest proportion of illiterates, the largest proportion of those who read and write.
"4. The nation which spends least on war and most upon education; which has the smallest army and navy, in proportion to its population and wealth, of any maritime power in the world.
"5. The nation which provides most generously during their lives for every soldier and sailor injured in its cause, and for their widows and orphans.
"6. The nation in which the rights of the minority and of property are most secure.
"7. The nation whose flag, wherever it floats over sea and land, is the symbol and guarantor of the equality of the citizen.
"8. The nation in whose Constitution no man suggests improvement; whose laws as they stand are satisfactory to all citizens.
"9. The nation which has the ideal second chamber, the most august assembly in the world the American Senate.
"10. The nation whose Supreme Court is the envy of the ex-prime minister of the parent-land.
"11. The nation whose Constitution is 1 the most perfect piece of work ever struck off at one time by the mind and purpose of man, according to the present prime minister of the parent-land.
"12. The nation most profoundly conservative of what is good, yet based upon the political equality of the citizen.
"13. The wealthiest nation in the world.
"4. The nation first in public credit and in payment of debt.
"15. The greatest agricultural nation in the world.
"16. The greatest manufacturing nation in the world.
"17. The greatest mining nation in the world."
California, from the Conquest in 1846 to the Second Vigilance Committee in San Francisco. By Josiah Royce. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Pp. 513, with Map. Price, $1.25.
This history belongs to the "American Commonwealths" series, of which Mr. Horace E. Scudder is the editor, and is presented as a study of American character. That character, earnest, practical, and always self-possessed, is strikingly exemplified in the manner in which a prosperous and advancing State has been organized out of the chaos that prevailed during the earlier years of the California settlement. In studying the subject, the social condition has been throughout of more interest to the author "than the individual men, and the men themselves of more interest than their fortunes, while the purpose to study the national character has never been lost sight of. Through all the complex facts that are here set down in their somewhat confused order, I have felt running the one thread of the process whereby a new and great community first came to a true consciousness of itself. The story begins with the seemingly accidental doings of detached but in the sequel vastly influential individuals, and ends just where the individual ceases to have any great historical significance for California life, and where the community begins to be what it ought to be, viz., all important as against individual doings and interests."
Food Materials and their Adulterations. By Ellen H. Richards, Instructor in Sanitary Chemistry in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, author of "Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning." Boston: Estes & Lauriat. 1886.
This work is the result of ten years' experience in laboratory examination of food materials, along with careful attention to the literature of the subject, both at home and abroad. It makes no claim to originality, but is intended to give useful information in a form adapted to schools and the home—that is, without technicalities or unnecessary details. Chapter I is an earnest plea for the education of girls in this vital subject of the quality of food; II considers water, tea, coffee, and cocoa; III, cereal foods; IV, milk, butter, and cheese; V, sugar; VI, canned fruits and meats; VII, condiments; VIII, perishable foods and the means for preserving them; IX, other materials used in cooking; X, principles of diet. Mrs. Richards regards scientific housekeeping as "the duty of the rich and the salvation of the poor." She tells of a young woman who lived and flourished "on corn-meal, cooked in various ways, for a whole year, with only a dinner every Sunday at a friend's house. She kept well and hearty on a peck of Indian-meal a month; so that her whole living cost only about ten dollars a year, as she prepared it herself." Twenty hours a week spent in making pies, cakes, and puddings, at a cost of five dollars, when an equivalent in fruit for dessert can be had for three dollars, with fuel and service saved as well as time, is given as one of the instances of thoughtless waste in which current household management abounds. The excellent works put forth by Mrs. Richards and her example of a life devoted to high practical ends must help on the time when housekeepers will respect their calling, become intelligent and interested in it, and then we may hope that their best thought will be devoted to its improvement.
Bulletin of the Scientific Laboratories of Denison University, Granville, Ohio. Edited by Professor C. L. Herrick. Pp. 136, with Plates and Tables. Price, $1.25.
The editor, assuming that every well conducted institution of learning should form a recognized center of scientific activity, the "Bulletin" is intended to represent the life of the college in its scientific departments. It contains papers, most of them well and clearly illustrated, on the "Osteology of the Evening Grossbeak"; "Metamorphoses of Phyllopod Crustacea"; "Superposed Buds"; "Limicole, or Mudliving Crustacea"; "Rotifers of America, with Descriptions of a New Genus and Several New Species"; "The Clinton Group of Ohio, with Descriptions of New Species"; "A Compend of Laboratory Manipulation," presenting in concise form the methods which have proved to be of greatest service; a condensed translation of Eugene Hussak's tables for the determination of rock-forming minerals; and a brief account of the natural history department of the university.
Food Consumption. By Carroll D. Wright.—Chemical Analysis and Treatment. By Professor W. O. Atwater. Boston: Wright and Potter Printing Company. Pp. 90.
This is the part of the report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics that relates to the quantities, costs, and nutrients of food materials. The investigation to which it relates was undertaken in the conviction that much money is wasted in the purchase of food that is lacking in the elements of nutrition, and that the incomes of working-men might be made far more effective if their food were provided in accordance with the results of scientific research. To aid in determining this point, a number of schedules of dietaries, giving qualities and costs of food of people of limited incomes were collected, and the constituents subjected to analysis. The results of the analyses are here presented in a comparative form, as between the constituents themselves, and as compared with other dietaries and recognized standards.
Hand-Book of Plant Dissection. By J. C. Arthur, M. Sc, Botanist to the New York Agricultural Experiment-Station; Charles R. Barnes, Professor of Botany in Purdue University; and John M. Coulter, Ph. D., Professor of Botany in Wabash College, Editors of the "Botanical Gazette." New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1866.
By the method of this book, plants are first subjected to "gross anatomy," as it is called, or observation, with the aid only of a hand-lens; and then, passing to "minute anatomy," every part is subjected to the compound microscope. The apparatus, reagents, and materials required, have been made as few as possible, and the directions for their use are so clear and intelligible, that they must have been derived from actual and extended experience in giving this form of instruction. The subjects selected for study are common plants, to be found everywhere, from the green slime on the north side of old fences and the trunks of trees, to the higher or flowering plants. Each one of these examples is studied closely and critically in all its parts. Explicit directions are given, but the student is warned against depending on the manual rather than working out results of his own. By this thorough study of a few examples, the main features of plant-anatomy are made familiar, at the same time that habits of independent observation and judgment are being established. Every school where botany is studied should have provision for getting such a first-hand knowledge of plant-anatomy as is contemplated in this excellent manual. The necessary outfit for such a course of study is carefully stated, but we find no reference to its probable cost—a very practical question, that will doubtless arise in the minds of many persons who are interested in educational progress.
Protection or Free Trade. An Examination of the Tariff Question, with Especial Regard to the Interests of Labor. By Henry George. New York: Henry George & Co. 1886. Pp. 356. Price, $1.50.
This is a discussion of the tariff question from Mr. George's well-known point of view, that nothing short of the abolition of private property in land can greatly benefit the laboring classes. The author traverses the ground usually gone over in economic works in the consideration of this subject, but by his fresh and vigorous treatment he lends an interest to it not usually found in such discussions. He arrives at the same conclusions in regard to the futility of tariffs to benefit industry as does every competent economist who has investigated the question, but, unlike most advocates of free trade, in current discussions, does not believe in the step-by-step process of reaching the end in view.
"Tariff for revenue only," he contends, is about the most cumbrous and costly method of raising a revenue and is indefensible on economical as well as political grounds. He therefore advocates immediate and unqualified free trade, and in doing so feels assured that the change would not involve the country in any great industrial convulsion. Even if it should, he holds that it is far better for the laboring classes that this should be short and sharp, than that it should extend over a long period, in which there would be time to shift almost if not the whole burden upon their shoulders.
Mr. George does not rest his discussion with the presentation of the generally accepted free-trade arguments, and from his point of view he could not logically stop short of the length to which he has carried it. Protection to the wage-earning class is the professed object of the tariff, and that given to the employer is only a means to this end. It was therefore incumbent upon Mr. George to consider the extent to which free trade can benefit the working-man under present industrial conditions, and to show further what the conditions of industry must be which would give it the greatest value for him. In taking up this portion of his subject he considers the cause of the hold protection still retains upon the industrial nations of the world after fifty years of discussion, and finds it in the belief that protection "makes work," and that this is just what the laboring man wants. Under the changed industrial conditions he proposes he believes the distribution of wealth would be so changed in favor of the laboring classes that the problem of getting work would cease to be of serious import, and the working-man would then see clearly the essential viciousness of trade restrictions. He closes the volume with an appeal to the working-classes to push the free trade issue into politics, and sees in its triumph the entering wedge which shall pave the way for his special reform.
First Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor. By Carroll D. Wright.—Industrial Depressions. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 485.
The Bureau of Labor was established by act of Congress of June 27, 1884, and the Commissioner was appointed in January, 1885. The Commissioner projected for the first year's work of the Bureau the collection of information relative to industrial depressions, by means of investigations which should comprehend a study of the character and alleged causes of the present crisis, whether the causes were contemporaneous in the great producing countries, and whether, as to duration, severity, and periodicity, they had been similar in such countries. The outline also comprehended the collection of data relating to the variation of wages in different countries and in different parts of this country, variations in the cost of living in the same localities, and in the cost of production, with all such alleged causes of industrial depressions as might offer opportunity for illustration through classified facts, and the suggestion of remedies for depressions. Five agents were employed in the investigation in foreign countries—Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy—and fifteen in this country. The results of their inquiries are given in detail, and summarized in this report.
Socialism and Christianity. By A. J. F. Behrends, D. D. New York: Baker & Taylor. Pp. 308. Price, $1.50.
Dr. Behrends was invited by the Trustees of the Hartford Theological Seminary to deliver a course of lectures before the students of that institution on the "Social Problems of our Time." This book is the fruit of his studies on the subject, in which he spent a year. In the constructive part of his work, he claims that he has been careful to maintain an independent position. "I have copied from no one, and have frequently found myself in agreement and at variance with the most opposite schools of thought. The method of criticism was fixed for me in my conception of Christianity, and in my settled conviction of its adequacy to solve the pending social problem." In the successive chapters are considered social theories and their history, the assumptions and economic fallacies of modern socialism, the rights of labor, the responsibilities of wealth, the personal and social causes of pauperism, its historical causes and its cure, the treatment of the criminal classes, and "Modern Socialism, Religion, and the Family." The last-named, the closing chapter, is marked by an extended discussion of the true doctrine of the family, which "grew out of the deepening conviction that, in all radical and permanent social reform, a high view of the sanctity of marriage must lead the way."
Political Science Quarterly. Edited by the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia College. March, 1866. Boston: Ginn & Co. Pp. 152. Price, $3 a year; 75 cents a single number.
The "Political Science Quarterly" is intended to furnish a field for the discussion of political, economic, and legal questions—the latter heading embracing chiefly questions of constitutional, administrative, and international law, from the scientific point of view, and by a scientific method. Such topics will be preferred as are of present interest in the United States, but no topics will be excluded which can throw light upon the problems and tendencies of our own country. The present number contains an introductory article on "The Domain of Political Science," by Professor Munroe Smith; "The American Commonwealth," by Professor John W. Burgess; "Collection of Duties," by Frank J. Goodnow; "American Labor Statistics," by Professor Richmond M. Smith; "Legislative Inquests," by Frederick W. Whitridge; "The Berlin Conference," by Daniel De Leon; and reviews of new books.
Persia: The Land of the Imams. By James Bassett. New York; Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 343. Price, $1.50.
The author is a missionary of the Presbyterian Board of Missions, and gives in this work a narrative of travel and residence during fourteen years, or from 1871 to 1885. In the first eleven of the sixteen chapters of the book, he gives narratives of extended tours, and such information as seemed to him to be profitable and interesting. The itineraries include the journey from Constantinople to Persia by way of Trebizond and Erzeroum, and to Oroomiah, with accounts of the Nestorians; from Oroomiah to Teheran, with a description of that city; a journey to Ispahan; from Teheran to the Black Sea and back; and from Teheran to Mashhad. In the remaining chapters is given a general review of Persian affairs, including facts which the author obtained in his travels, chiefly from his own observations. They relate to the general account of the country and its social and economical condition, its government, the prevailing religions, and the condition and prospects of missionary work there. Concerning the value of our diplomatic representation there under Mr. Benjamin, we are informed that "it could not be otherwise than that the arrival (in June, 1883) at the capital of a legation of the United States should create in the mind of the Shah and of the officers of the Persian Government a greater interest in America and Americans. The missionaries were in a position to reap the benefits of this interest, and the minister, in the brief period of his residence in Teheran, was able to secure for them, from the Persians, some valuable concessions."
Outlines of Geology. An Introduction to the Science for Junior Students and General Readers. By James Geikie, LL. D., F. R. S. Illustrated. London: E. Stanford. Pp. 424.
In this work, as in the "Class-Book of Geology," by Archibald Geikie, noticed elsewhere in these pages, the plan pursued has been first to thoroughly acquaint the student with the various agents that effect geological changes, and their modes of action, and only then to pass on to the study of the different geological systems. The first half of the book is given to a careful investigation of the work performed by the different forces of Nature. This is discussed under two heads, viz.: "I. Epigene, or Superficial Action"; and, "II. Hypogene, or Plutonic Action."
The first of these divisions treats of the action of the atmosphere, of water, and of plants and animals, while the second studies the action of the subterranean forces.
The work done by terrestrial waters in effecting important changes receives due attention; rain, underground water, brooks and rivers, lakes, each is considered at length. Two chapters are devoted to the geological action of ice; another to the influence of the sea.
A review of the part performed by plants and animals in geological changes is followed by a chapter on the classification of the products of surface-action.
The second division, given to the consideration of subterranean action, embraces the subjects of volcanoes and volcanic products; the mineralogical composition of vitreous and crystalline igneous rocks; their penological character; movements of the earth's crust; the structure of rock-masses; ore-deposits, etc.
A chapter on paleontological geology forms the introduction to historical geology. The divisions here made are four in number: the primary or palæozoic, the secondary or mesozoic, the tertiary or cainozoic, and the quaternary or post-tertiary. Each of these is studied in turn. Numerous illustrations are given of the fossils occurring in and characteristic of the different periods. In fact, these illustrations, together with some others, inserted in the first part of the book, constitute one of the great attractions of this volume.
Class-Book of Geology. By Archibald Geikie, LL. D., F. R. S. Illustrated. London: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 516. Price, $2.60.
This volume is intended to complete a series of educational works on physical geography and geology, projected by the author a number of years ago. It is a book written by the light of experience gained in practical teaching, and the writer's aim has been to produce a work that should awaken an interest in and love for the science of which it treats, and thus incite to original study and research.
The book is divided into four parts, and embraces a consideration of the materials for the history of the earth, a study of rocks, and how they tell the history of the earth, an account of the crust of the globe, and a careful analysis of the geological record of the history of the earth.
The influence of the atmosphere in changes affecting the surface of the earth, and the effects produced by water, under various conditions, take up the first few chapters. These are followed by an essay on "ice-records"—a history of the glacial epoch—and then comes an interesting description of how plants and animals inscribe their records in geological history.
In discussing the more important elements and minerals of the earth's crust, brief reference is made to the mode of occurrence, formation, and properties of each, and the crystalline form and the origin of crystallized minerals are carefully studied. Under the head of "The more important Rocks and Rock Structures" is considered the question of how minerals are combined and distributed so as to build up the earth's crust; attention is here especially directed to the knowledge of rock structure gained within recent years by the use of the microscope.
Part III treats in turn of the sedimentary and the eruptive rocks. Of the former, the original structure, the association of strata, the chronological value of strata, etc., . . . are reviewed; in connection with the latter, the formation of mineral veins—by deposition from the molten state and by deposition from water-solution—is described.
Fossils, which may be termed "the labels of the strata," receive the share of attention due their importance, and are studied as indicating former changes in geography, former conditions of climate, and the chronological sequence of geological formations.
The rest of the book is given to the study of the main divisions of the geological record—that is to say, to a systematic review of the stratified formations of the earth's crust.
An appendix, furnishing an outline of the classification of the vegetable and the animal kingdom will prove convenient for reference, and the many illustrations embodied in the text of the volume will be a welcome aid to the student.
The Wealth of Households. By J. T. Dawson. Oxford (England): At the Clarendon Press. Pp. 368.
Manual Training. The Solution of Social and Industrial Problems. By Charles H. Horn. Illustrated. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1886.
The contents of this volume are briefly summarized by the author as consisting, first, of a detailed description of the various laboratory class processes from the first lesson to the last in the three years' course of study at the Chicago Manual Training School. The second division is "an exhaustive argument a posteriori and a fortiori in support of the proposition that tool-practice is highly promotive of intellectual growth, and in a still greater degree of the up-building of character." The third division deals with the history of civilization as related to methods of education, and in the fourth part the history of manual training as an educational force is briefly presented.
Color Studies. By Thomas A. Janvier. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 227.
A book of stories of artist-life, to which an allegorical air is given by the characters bearing the name of artists' colors. According to its motto, the book is without moral or purpose, but "whichever way you look" in it, "you'll only find—a pair of lovers."
A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century. By Agnes M. Clerke. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1886. Pp. 468. Price, $4.
"The present volume does not profess to be a complete or exhaustive history of astronomy during the period covered by it. Its design is to present a view of the progress of celestial science on its most characteristic side since the time of Herschel." These words, taken from the preface, clearly present the scope and aim of the book before us.
The introduction refers briefly to the three kinds of astronomy distinguished. The first of these is known as observational or practical, the second is called gravitational or theoretical, and was founded by Newton; and the third is best described by the term physical and descriptive astronomy. A short sketch is given of the progress of the science during the eighteenth century, and the rapid advance during the nineteenth century is broadly outlined.
The book is divided into two parts. The first of these treats of the progress of astronomy during the first half of the nineteenth century, the second is devoted to the progress made in recent years. The chapters in Part I embrace the foundation of sidereal astronomy, progress of sidereal astronomy, progress of knowledge regarding the sun, planetary discoveries, comets, and instrumental advances.
Part II discusses, among other topics, the foundation of astronomical physics, solar observations and theories, recent solar eclipses, spectroscopic work on the sun, the temperature of the sun, planets, and satellites, recent comets, stars, and nebulae, and methods of research.
It has been the intention of the author to secure the materials needed from the original authorities whenever possible, and the large number of references given throughout the work will prove of great value and assistance to students.
Considerable attention has also been paid to the biography of the more eminent workers in this field, and the story of the life of many of these men strikingly enforces the lesson that great results may be reached even under the most discouraging circumstances by honest devotion to the work in hand, joined with tenacity of purpose.
Forests and Fruit-Growers. By Abbot Kinney, of Kinneyloa, San Gabriel, California. Pp. 5.
This is an address which was prepared and read at the California Fruit-Growers' Convention, by request of the State Board of Horticultural Commissioners. It presents the damage which has been produced in consequence of the destruction of the forests in different parts of the world. Accompanying his address, Mr. Kinney sends an article on "Floods and Fires," in which he gives the matter a local application, exhibiting the injury that has been wrought in the neighborhood of his own home by forest destruction, and shows that more of the same kind may be anticipated from continued progress in the wasting work.
Circulars of Information of the Bureau of Education, 1885. Nos. 3 and 4. Washington: Government Printing-office. Pp. 55 and 56.
Circular No. 3 is a review of the Reports of the British Royal Commissioners on Technical Instruction, with notes, by the late Charles O. Thompson, of the Rose Polytechnic Institute, Terre Haute, Indiana. No. 4 is an account of the organization and statistics of education in Japan.
United States Government Publications. Monthly Catalogue. Vol. I. No. 12. Washington, D. C.: J. H. Hickcox. Pp. (of the volume) 292. Price, $2 a year.
It is believed that, in the volume of the Catalogue now completed, no Government publication of the year has escaped notice. The number of publications mentioned is approximately given at three thousand. A copious index is provided. The Catalogue will be continued, though the subscriptions to it have not yet been flattering.
The Life and Genius of Goethe. Edited by F. B. Sanborn. Boston: Ticknor & Co. Pp. 404.
An Apache Campaign in the Sierra Madre. By John G. Bourke. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 112. Price, $1.
This is a spirited and very interesting account of the expedition, under General Crook, in pursuit of the hostile Chiricahua Apaches in the spring of 1883. Its purpose is simply to outline some of the difficulties attending the solution of the Indian question in the Southwest, and to make known the methods employed in conducting campaigns against savages in hostility. The author makes it understood that for the better accomplishment of this object he has submitted an unmutilated extract from his journal kept during the whole period involved. The record having been kept in a style free from literary affectations, presents picturesquely the life of the campaign. The illustrations, showing the customs and arts of the Apaches, add much to the value of the book.
John Cabot's Landfall in 1497 and the site of Norumbega. By Eben Norton Horsford. Cambridge: John Wilson & Son. Pp. 39, with Maps.
John Cabot, in 1497, came upon a spot somewhere in New England which he called, after the designation given by the Indians, Norumbega. The French afterward built a fort called Norumbega, on a river of the same name. The site has since been lost, but has usually been assigned to the banks of the Penobscot, although for reasons not judged sufficient. Mr. Horsford believes that he has found both Norumbegas—Cabot's on Salem Neck, and the French fort and town, on Charles River, between Riverside and Waltham, Massachusetts, where he discovered the remains of the fort. If the first determination is correct, Cabot is proved to have preceded Columbus in the discovery of (continental) America.
Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1884. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 903.
This volume contains the usual official reports of the proceedings of the Board of Regents, of the Executive Committee on financial affairs, and of the secretary, giving an account of the operations and condition of the Institution for the year 1884, with the statistics of collections, exchanges, etc. To these are added, in the Appendix, a record of recent progress in the principal departments of science, and special memoirs, original and selected, on various subjects. Among the memoirs are several papers of particular interest in anthropology, among which we may mention Mr. Vreeland's on the antiquities at Pantaleon, Guatemala—very curious sculptured figures, unique in American aboriginal art—and Professor Mason's account of the Guesde collection of antiquities in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe.
Darling, Charles W. Anthropophagy, historic and pre-historic. Utica, N. Y. Privately printed. Pp. 47.
Shufeldt, P. . W. Science and the State. Pp. 10.
Carter, J. M. G. The Relation of Etiology to Evolution. St. Louis. Pp. 8.
The Journal of Heredity. Edited by Mary Weeks Burnett, M. D. Quarterly. Chicago. Pp. 48. $1 a year.
Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science. Proceedings of the Sixth Meeting, Ann Arbor, Mich. 1885. B. D. Halsted, Ames, Iowa, Secretary. Pp. 59.
Hilgard, Eugene W. Report on the Viticultural Work of the College of Agriculture, University of California. 1833-1885. Pp. 210.
Proceedings of the Colorado Scientific Society. 1885. Whitman Cross, Secretary. Pp. 36.
Mills, T. Wesley, Montreal. The Action of Certain Drugs and Poisons on the Heart of the Fish. Pp. 7.
Curtis, George T., and Richards, F. S. Arguments, in the Supreme Court of the United States, on Religious Liberty and the Rights of Conscience. Pp. 80.
Curry. S. S., Boston. School of Expression. Second Annual Catalogue. Pp. 12.
Von Taube, G. The Fitting School, Gramercy Park, New York. Pp. 86.
Ryder. John A. On the Development of Viviparous Osseous Fishes and of the Atlantic Salmon. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 35. With Seven Plates.
Cornell University. Proceedings in Memory of Louis Agassiz and in Honor of Hiram Sibley. 1885. Pp. 33.
Foster, Michael, and others. "The Journal of Physiology." Vol. VII, No. 1. Cambridge, England. Pp. 80. With Three Plates. $5 a volume.
Martin, H. N. . and Brooks, W. K. Studies from the Biological Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. Vol. III. No. 7. Baltimore: N. Murray. Pp. 50. With Plates. 80 cents. $5 a volume.
Boston Society of Civil Engineers. Comparative Size of Metric and Old Units, and Report on Weights and Measures. Pp. 23.
United States Bureau of Statistics Quarterly Report of Imports, etc., to March 31, 1886. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 180.
Some Funny Things said by Children. New York: J. S. Ogilvie & Co. Pp. 62. 10 cents.
"Journal of the American Chemical Society." New York: Monthly. Pp. 24. $5 a year.
Wood. E. A., M. D., Philadelphia. Heredity and Education. Pp. 12. Frazer, Persifor. The Application of Composite Photography to Handwriting. Pp. 10.
Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind. School of Pharmacy. Third Annual Announcement. Pp. 8; Bulletin No. 1. Pp. 22.
School of Pharmacy, University of Michigan. Annual Announcement for 1886-'87. Ann Arbor, Mich. Pp. 44.
Marcou. Annotated Catalogue of the Published Writings of Charles Abiathar White. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 64.
Curtiss, Romaine J., M.D., Joliet, III. State Control of Medical Education and Practice. Pp. 32.
Skidmore, Professor S. T., Philadelphia. The Burial of an Ass. Pp. 15.
Austen, Peter P., New Brunswick, N. J. The Purification of Water by Alum. Pp. 4. Dinitrosulphocyanbenzene. Pp. 3.
Historical Society of Southern California. Los Angeles. January, 1886. Pp. 43.
Hartwell, Edward Mussey. Physical Training in American Colleges and Universities. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 183. With Plates.
Wads worth. M. E. On a Supposed Fossil from the Copper-bearing Rocks of Lake Superior. Pp. 4. List of Publications, 1877-1835. Pp. 8.
Kennedy, J. F., M. D. Typhoid Fever. Pp. 14. Health Laws of the State of Iowa. 3836. Pp. 43.
Smithsonian Accounts of Progress in 1885. Geography, by J. King Goodrich, pp. 36; Chemistry, by H. Carrington Bolton, pp. 50; Astronomy, by William C. Winlock, pp. 114; North American Invertebrate Paleontology, by John Belknap Marcou, pp. 46; Anthropology, by Professor Otis T. Mason, pp. 56; Mineralogy, by Professor E. S. Dana, pp. 26; Vulcanology and Seismology, by Professor Charles G. Rockwood, Jr., pp. 23; Physics, by Professor George F. Barker, pp. 60. Washington: Government Printing-Office.
Warden. Florence. Doris's Fortune. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 194. 25 cents.
Cassell’s National Library. No. 20. The Battle of the Books and other Short Pieces. By Jonathan Swift. Pp. 192. Poems. By George Crabbe. Pp. 192. Egypt and Scythia described by Herodotus. Pp. 192. 10 cents each.
Tchernychewsky, N. G. What's to be Done? Translated by Benjamin R. Tucker. Boston: Benjamin B. Tucker. Pp. 329. $1.
The Cognitive Powers. By James McCosh. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 245. $1.50.
The Mystery of Pain. By James Hinton, M.D. Boston: Cupples, Upham, & Co. Pp. 121.
Kedzie, J. H. Solar Heat, Gravitation, and Sun-Spots. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. Pp. 304. $1.50.
Chamberlin, Edwin M. The Sovereigns of Industry. Boston: Lee & Shepard. Pp. 136.
Harris, Amanda B. Old School-Days. Boston: Interstate Publishing Company. Pp. 109. 60 cents.
Kirke. Edmund. The Rear-Guard of the Revolution. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 317. $1.50.
Hoffman, K. B.. and Ultzmann, R. Analysis of the Urine. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 310. With Eight Plates.
Steam-heating Problems. New York: The Sanitary Engineer. Pp. 233. $3.
Logan, John A. The Great Conspiracy. Its Origin and History. New York: A. R. Hart & Co. Pp. 810. With Plates.
Abbott, Helen C. de S. Preliminary Analysis of the Bark of Fouquieria splendens, pp. 8; Yucca angustifolia, pp. 32.